Zymergen Acquires Metagenomics Company Radiant Genomics

Molecular Technology Company Amasses One of the World’s Largest
Libraries of Genetic Diversity

January 08, 2018 12:00 PM Eastern Standard Time

EMERYVILLE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Zymergen, a molecular technology company integrating machine learning
and manufacturing technologies to engineer biology, today announced the
acquisition of Radiant Genomics, a leader in functional metagenomics
research. The addition brings Radiant Genomics’ leading-edge metagenomic
technologies and accompanying genetic libraries to Zymergen’s core
platform, accelerating Zymergen’s ability to identify and commercialize
novel molecules used in a range of industries - including agriculture,
healthcare, chemicals and materials, and more.

Today, products made via biology are derived primarily from organisms
that can be grown easily in a lab setting, leaving the vast majority of
nature’s immense genetic diversity untapped. Estimates suggest that less
than one percent of natural diversity has been easily accessible to
scientists, and yet even this small percentage has provided billions of
dollars of value. Radiant Genomics has developed a robust industrial
platform for natural product and gene discovery that allows scientists
to rapidly identify, produce, and test products encoded in the genomes
of millions of organisms not easily grown in the lab, circumventing
cultivation barriers.

With more than two terabases of physical and digital DNA data, Radiant’s
libraries comprise one of the largest fully-assembled and
instantly-accessible catalogues of genetic diversity in the world.
Integrating this catalogue and discovery technologies with Zymergen’s
core platform will set the standard for bringing together biology,
engineering, machine learning, and manufacturing.

“Radiant Genomics was launched with the same vision that drove us to
start Zymergen – that the next great wave of innovation will come from
biology,” said Joshua Hoffman, Zymergen CEO. “The molecules biology
produces on its own could provide solutions to some of the toughest
challenges across industries. Radiant has built an unparalleled platform
and set of libraries to search genetic diversity that will allow us to
search for these molecules of interest, extending our ability to produce
useful molecules for materials that can transform the world around us.”

“We’re thrilled to bring our technology to Zymergen, a company with the
uniquely proven ability to go rapidly from lab to full scale commercial
production across a range of industries,” said Dr. Jeffrey Kim, CEO and
Chief Scientific Officer of Radiant Genomics. “Merging our technologies
will broaden the range of potential products we can access from biology,
greatly accelerate the pace of engineering them, and advance our ability
to bring them to market at industrial scale."

With the deal, Radiant Genomics’ entire team including founders Jeffrey
Kim and Oliver Liu, will join Zymergen. Since its founding only four
years ago, Zymergen has grown to more than 400 employees. The company
recently opened its second offices in Seattle.

Zymergen is a molecular technology company ushering in a new age of
manufacturing and industrial innovation. Leveraging the power of machine
learning, automation, and bioengineering, Zymergen takes a radically
different approach to improving the performance of materials and to
discovering new molecular products that touch every industry – from
agriculture to chemicals and materials, pharmaceuticals, and more. The
technology is in use today, creating value for Fortune 500 companies and
major corporations across the globe.